Australia-Middle East airlines: Etihad to become 10th largest carrier in Australia; Qantas re-times

Growth in Middle East-Australia frequencies is slowing as Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways approach bilateral capacity ceilngs. Emirates has nearly reached its limit while Etihad will reach its cap when it launches Abu Dhabi-Perth services in Jul-2014. Qatar reached its limit when it opened Perth in 2013.

Qatar is once again considering Sydney, while Etihad would like an additional daily service to each of Melbourne and Sydney, and possibly Brisbane too. But in the short term there are notable developments in the Australia-Middle East market. Etihad's A380 deployment to Melbourne and Sydney represents 25% seat growth over Jul-2014 levels. Once that growth is realised, Etihad will have grown seat capacity 76% since 2013. Qatar meanwhile is planning to down-gauge its new, and only other, Australian city - Perth - from a 777 to A350.

Collectively Gulf carriers flew 11.5% of all international passengers to/from Australia, although the vast majority was from Emirates, Australia's second-largest carrier flying more than half the international passengers Qantas does. Meanwhile Qantas is changing its Melbourne-London service to facilitate better connections, opening 13 more options, while also reducing ground time in London by some 14 hours.